Convert More Shoppers into Customers with Browse Abandonment Emails

The concept of window shopping is certainly alive and kicking when it comes to eCommerce. People around the globe regularly browse the net for products yet frequently fail to make the purchase. You may be wondering why this happens, after all if these people are browsing then surely, they are interested in purchasing, right? Well, quite honestly, we do not know their intent but you should never assume that they aren’t interested. This is where a structured browse abandonment campaign comes into play.

It is common practice for eCommerce companies to retarget customers who’ve actively placed products into their shopping cart and have failed to checkout. Whilst the abandoned cart campaign is a fabulous conversion tool many companies are forgetting that very frequently customers who are browsing and have abandoned without taking action are also viable targets for conversion. At present, only 15% of eCommerce websites are including a browse abandonment campaign within their email strategy.

What exactly is a browse abandonment campaign and how does it work?

Browse abandonment occurs when a customer has arrived at your store and has actively viewed your product pages and have left without taking any further action. If you are not engaging these customers, then you have no chance of converting them. A browse abandonment campaign is designed to engage and incentivize the customer to return and complete their purchase.

Browse abandonment emails fit under the automation umbrella, meaning that the email will be sent automatically to a customer once a set trigger point has been activated. An automated email strategy sets specific trigger points for each automated email series that allows the email to be sent with relevant data-driven, personalized, content to the right person at the right moment in time. In this case, we are referring to a customer leaving the website without adding products to their shopping cart.

As you are aware, email automation is triggered by on-site actions. The browse abandonment takes that one step further and does not require any action to take place for the automation to be triggered. Remarkety has the capability to track and measure all on-site activity that occurs on your eCommerce website, including on-site behavior such as; page views and product views, as well as on-site actions. As long as you have captured the email address of the customer we have the ability to send data-driven emails personalized down to the very last detail.

Browse Abandonment Best Practices

We don’t really know why your window shopper has come to your website or why they left without purchasing. Maybe they’re in the process of moving home and were browsing kitchen accessories for the new house which they have yet to purchase, or they are planning ahead and searching for that perfect birthday gift for their best friend’s birthday in 4 months. Whatever their browsing reason is we need to focus on what we do know; they came to the website and viewed specific products/pages. Our job is to engage them and guide them towards the right product and a sale. Simple!

1: Insert product images and links into the email that they were looking at

Using the drag and drop email editor you can add image blocks that will dynamically insert images derived from the data collected on your website. The look will be similar to that of the abandoned cart and will allow the customer to click the image and be taken to the relevant page on your website.

2: Recommend an alternative product from the same category

There are several reasons why the customer may have decided against pursuing a purchase that you can target with an alternative recommendation. Maybe the item that the customer viewed was slightly over budget or you didn’t have their size in stock, they may not have realized that you also have that product in another color, well, why not show them what else you have to offer. Remarkety has access to all your website images and can automatically extract the relevant data and images directly from your store.

3: What other customers purchased recommendation

There are several ways in which you can include other customer purchase recommendations. You can include the best sellers from the same category, or what products are purchased together most frequently. The idea is to bring new products that haven’t been viewed, but are similar to those viewed to the customer.

In conclusion, research has proven that the browse abandonment campaign will encourage browsers to return to the store to pursue a sale. However, unlike other automated campaigns, this campaign needs to be structured carefully. The timing of this automation is vital for it to succeed. Your goal is to target customers that have shown a high level of interest meaning they have viewed more than one page on the website, and/or have returned to the page on at least two separate occasions before the campaign is triggered.